If you are a sports fan or if you live with a sports fan then your weekly schedule becomes inextricably linked with what sporting events are on at what times during each week. The conflict between missing a sporting event for a poorly committed to social event and missing an appealing social event to watch a game is an important balancing act in any kind of romantic, familial, or business relationship between a sports fan and a non-sports fan. To help facilitate this complicated advanced mathematics, Dear Sports Fan has put together a table showing the most important sporting events of the upcoming week. Print it out, put it on your fridge, and go through it with your scheduling partner.
This does not include MLB baseball games. There are so many of those every day that another approach is needed. That approach is our special Daily MLB Forecast.
Download a full-size copy here.
Monday: Our week starts out very slowly… with only a single Canadian Football League game on the calendar. The Montreal Alouettes are a little more famous than most Canadian teams, thanks to their habit of having higher profile players. This year, they have Michael Sam, the only openly gay professional football player, on their roster but have yet to play him. Tonight won’t be the night for Sam to see his first professional action.
Tuesday: The UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious men’s club soccer competition but in its earliest stages, it rarely produces memorable games because the match-ups are so uneven. That’s probably true for tonight’s game between Monaco and Young Boys. Worried about that name? Don’t be. The Young Boys were named in opposition to a nearby rival called the Old Boys over 100 years ago.
Wednesday: The International Champions Cup, which is far less prestigious than the Champions League, finishes today with a game between the British champions, Chelsea, and Italian team Fiorentina. With domestic leagues starting soon, these two teams are likely to treat this game like a fairly serious last walk-through before they begin to play in earnest. The day of sports ends with two CONCACAF (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean) Champions League games between two MLS teams from the Pacific coast, Seattle and Vancouver, and two Mexican league teams, America and Motagua.
Thursday: The Tour of Utah is a miniature version of the Tour de France. Instead of 20 days of racing, the cyclists only have to endure seven days. The mountains are no less huge though. Stage Four features more than a mile and a half of elevation gain during a 127 mile ride. The Special Olympics continues in L.A. and continues to be rewarding to watch. And tonight’s CONCACAF Champions League game features the star-studded Los Angeles Galaxy.
Friday: Date night! Either blow off sports completely or go to a Canadian bar and watch some football while drinking Molson and eating poutine.
Saturday: There’s basically no off-season in soccer anymore, but for fans of the British Premier League, today’s opening day of matches is long awaited and highly anticipated. You can easily spend all day watching soccer, starting at 7:45 a.m. with breakfast and ending at Soldier Field Stadium in Boston, enjoying a sausage while watching the Breakers in their last home game of the year! On a non-soccer track, you can happily follow golf at 2 p.m. ET, motocross at 3, and the NFL Hall of Fame speeches at 7 p.m.
Sunday: The opening weekend of the British Premier League is joined by the first game of the NFL preseason today. Those are probably the two most hotly followed leagues in the Western World. In between there is fun golf, NASCAR, and beach volleyball action to keep an eye on.
Caveat — This forecast is optimized for the general sports fan, not a particular sports fan. As such, your mileage may vary. For instance, you or the sports fan in your life is a fan of a particular team, then a regular season MLB baseball game or MLS soccer game may be more important on a particular day than anything on the forecast above. Use the calendar as a way to facilitate conversation about scheduling, not as the last word on when there are sports to watch.